According to a Dow Jones news report, North Carolina
Treasurer Richard Moore extended the deadline to comply
with the “Merrill Lynch Principles” from October 31 to
January 15, 2003.

“We changed the deadline because there are attempts by
the industry and the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) and other regulatory bodies to have a global
settlement that in all likelihood will set an even higher
accountability standard,” Moore told Dow Jones.

Under the Merrill Lynch Principles, financial firms that
do business with North Carolina would adopt the
conflict-of-interest principles outlined in an agreement
New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer reached with
investment firm Merrill Lynch & Co. on May 21. (See the
”
Merrill Lynch Principles
“).

The principles call for financial organizations that
provide investment-banking services to the state to
separate compensation for analysts and investment banks,
and prohibit investment banks from having input into
analyst compensation. They also call for companies to
create review committees to approve all research
recommendations and other measures.

California and New York also want financial advisers
who do business with their
pension funds to adopt the principles. The Board of the
Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS)
announced November 4 that it, too, would embrace the
principles. (See
Pa. Pension Embraces ‘Merrill Lynch Principles’).